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I'm 32, currently self employed, but I would really love a job at an organization that comes with benefits. I interviewed with a large international airline this week for a job that would have been pretty much perfect. The catch is I'm visually impaired. I did my best to point out that I have the experience to help a variety of other differently abled people feel comfortable, I know when yo ask for help, I'm experienced with a range of visual accessibility tools. I did everything I could to minimize the worry. On a personal level I thought the interview went great, and I received an email this morning saying my resume is not even being help in their pre-approved pool of people who just weren't good enough for this round. Unfortunately this has been an ongoing theme of pretty much every interview I've ever had. Over the years I've spoken to numerous folks about it and always received different advice. I had a career counselor at the CNIB say why even tell people? I've had friends in management say of course you bring it up, nobody likes surprises. I've always felt it's fairest to bring it up in the interview, that if I got the job and hadn't said anything people would feel like I had lied. My whole life I've had two successful interviews outside of working for family or myself, and one was because a friend was working at a high management level and essentially got me the job, and the other was because although I tried to let my interviewer know just for fair warning he was powering through and not really paying attention because it was a hiring flurry before Christmas for a casual position and in the end I also didn't get told I was being kept on until two days before my contract ended which meant having to scramble in January. My visual disability is that I have low vision, am profoundly colourblind, and I have no depth perception. I'm currently working at a transcriptionist and closed captioner, but I would like something a bit more stable, and with benefits. I am capable of living independently, I manage my own finances, buy my own clothes, I'm an avid knitter. I own a dog who doesn't pay attention to her own surroundings so I'm more guiding her. I just have to get close to things to read them, am squinty and, you know, colourblind. So my question is, how do I approach this in interview situations that will stop companies from just shying away? Or is there a way to do so? tl;dr: My eyes are broken, how do get hired?
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Jan 27, 2017 19:26
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Thanks so much everyone! Seriously, I think it's just that I've always felt it was the right thing to do, but yeah, being honest sucks. Well I know what I'm going to do if I interview with those folks again! And hopefully this was helpful to not just me. It's a super hard thing to deal with and I have been worried that it would cause an issue once I was hired as far as mood when I was working, but it's nice to see that people actually understand so I feel a lot more confident that people would get it and not be lovely about it if I got hired. Thanks folks!
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Jan 31, 2017 18:29
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Hey folks, I should clarify, first of all ladygoon, not that it's important, but also I'm Canadian. Although we have similar legislation in Canada I've never heard that they're not allowed to ask those kinds of questions in interview especially if someone offers up the information. I'm glad to heard that the ADA gives clear-cut guidelines. I think I also always disclose because my eye condition means I'm really squinty so I'm also paranoid they'll think I'm super high. I think the other thing I'd love to know is if anybody has any experience having had a coworker not disclose and get hired and how was the mood in the work environment? I know every place is individual but I just FEEL like people would respond in a lovely manner.
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Feb 4, 2017 07:46
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Uncle Enzo posted:This is probably a good time to point our that forums poster John Smith is known to be an rear end in a top hat with wrong ideas, bad opinions, and the hygiene of a bloated corpse. I actually have previously and the general response is you should disclose but when you ask them how to frame it or when the right time is to mention it they just come back with "you do." The problem is most people giving this kind of advice are well intentioned and are just taught that's just what you do. I even have a girlfriend who's an occupational therapist and she said the same thing. If you want to avoid an uncomfortable working environment then you disclose, if not then don't, but be prepared that you're going to be discriminated against. And the thing is I can handle people being lovely to be, what I cannot tolerate is being stuck in a position of poor financial stability because somebody feels like they weren't informed and then blocked me from getting past probation, oh and also not using my name or speaking to me directly, but just referring to me as "her" and "she" for the rest of the time I was working with that company. (And no there was no recourse when the store manager would just kow tow to this woman for some reason I can't understand because she was a complete bag of cunts to customers as well as everyone else.) I understand that this seems incredibly emo, and it should be black and white, but companies have probationary periods and I can't afford to have a solid job for three months but then get told I "just didn't work out" because I've burned bridges on my way in the door. I know what the law says, I do know what my rights are. And I know this sounds incredibly whiny to most people. But if you've never walked out of an interview-pretty much every interview you've ever done, and felt like it went great and you really clicked only to find you "weren't the right candidate" or "just not a good fit" when you've been left with the impression they look forward to speaking you. I literally cannot think of how to improve my actual interview game, and this is the last straw. I accepted it when I was interviewing for retail, but actual professional career jobs I expected better. I realize that was naive but there it is. This is a thing I can work around, but there's nothing I can do to fix it and it's just loving frustrating because to get to a place in your life where you're finally at peace with a disability and you can do all the grown up things despite it and you don't FEEL like it's really holding you back, well this poo poo is just a total knockback. I get the don't be loving stupid approach and that I need to man up. I genuinely do. Honestly, I've just had so much in the way of professional and personal advice that my rights are such, and you should be honest because this, and so yeah, I needed a nice cross section of people's opinions. Thanks for your honesty folks. I just hope this is helpful for other people in my position.
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Feb 6, 2017 18:53
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